


You Remind Me of This Love I Had

by Meilan_Firaga



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 06:16:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20559593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meilan_Firaga/pseuds/Meilan_Firaga
Summary: Former professional ballerina Sara Lance has become a bit jaded about the activity she used to love so much, but after some time away she's trying to find that joy again. One night while she's working in a studio on a type of routine she'd caught a lot of flack for attempting she meets someone that might just be the inspiration she needs.





	You Remind Me of This Love I Had

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shopfront](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/gifts).

There was a certain peace in returning to what she’d been so sure she wanted to leave behind. Defiance in it as well, the mix of what she’d been so staunchly trained for melding perfectly with practices she’d pursued despite her instructor’s orders to abstain. Her form was, as it had always been, technically perfect, but the way she was currently applying it would have made her instructors grind their teeth in irritation. It had always been the strict rules, the ridiculous insistence on _‘purity of style’_ that irritated her about the company. How a house comprised of so much talent could remain so willfully ignorant to the beauty in other paths would honesty baffle her until the end of her days.

Sara’s hands tightened on the silks, her muscles tensing as she propelled her body in a neat flip until she hung facing the floor, her legs stretched behind her with her toes perfectly pointed. Her shoulders burned with the effort of holding her body aloft. It seemed it didn’t take long to get out of practice. She twisted her body once more, closing her eyes as she moved slowly into another pose and held perfectly still. Echoing up from below, the music she’d selected steadily gained intensity, the volume rising. Anticipation building, her heart began to pound. The music dropped away to nothing, a pause that lasted little more than a heartbeat before it came back at a frenzied pace.

The routine was the first she’d ever learned. Her muscles knew it well, and even with her eyes closed she knew she wasn’t making any mistakes. It was exhilarating. When the song finished and Sara’s feet reconnected with the floor she expected silence. It was late, and no one else had been in the studio when she’d come to practice. So, it came as quite a surprise when she was instead met with furious applause.

At the edge of the mat stood a young woman. Her blonde hair—almost the same color as Sara’s—was pulled back in a curling ponytail. She was wearing a pair of black shorts and a hot pink tank with a cupcake on the front. Behind a pair of thick rimmed glasses her eyes sparkled with delight.

“Oh my god, you are incredible!” she gushed. Her cheeks colored with an attractive rosy glow, and she flinched as if she’d said something wrong and flailed hands tipped in bright green nails. “I mean, not that I’m any sort of judge because I know almost nothing about aerial work, but that looked completely amazing and I feel like it couldn’t look that amazing if you didn’t have a solid grasp on what you’re doing and I don’t know why I’m still talking.” Sara began to unwind herself from the silks while the other woman babbled. “I can just go.”

“Please don’t,” Sara said immediately. She hadn’t spent time with many people since she’d come back to the city, and this woman was nothing short of adorable. “I don’t mind company.”

The woman beamed, happiness lighting up her entire face. “I’m Felicity.” She held out a hand for Sara to shake. “Felicity Smoak.”

“Nice to meet you.” Sara took the hand that was offered, a pleasant little spark of connection traveling up her arm at the contact. “Sara Lance.”

“Sara Lance!?” Behind her glasses Felicity’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. “You were the prima ballerina at Starling Ballet! I went to your last run as Giselle three separate times!”

“You’re cute,” Sara told her, ignoring the small pang she felt at the reminder of her past in the city. Most of the time when people wanted to talk to her about the ballet the conversation was loaded with so many things. There were accusations for her part in leaving and the harm she’d caused the company when she left just before the season started, disappointment that she no longer graced the stage, and so many other negative emotions in every interaction. There was nothing negative in Felicity’s excitable demeanor. “Do you dance as well?”

Felicity’s cheeks colored again, this time in embarrassment. “Next to you not at all,” she laughed. “I work at a desk most of the time, so dance is mostly a fitness thing for me. Gotta get some kind of movement in.” She bent to tug off her shoes before stepping onto the mat. She moved around Sara and ran a hand down the hanging silks, smiling. “I took ballet and tap when I was a little girl, but I don’t think I was ever really any good.”

For a long moment Sara watched the way the younger woman moved while she told a few stories about childhood recitals and ranted about Zumba. She looked at the silks with a reverence that Sara knew well. She’d felt it herself when she’d first started to take classes outside of ballet. Felicity’s feet were turned just the slightest bit inward, her shoulders rolled forward in a way that made her seem small. She didn’t have the body or the technique to dance like Sara had done at the company, but there was more joy in her face as she talked about dancing than Sara had felt in the entire time she was the prima. She felt a tiny bit jealous, but mostly all Sara wanted to do was latch onto this amazing, happy woman who would definitely understand why the restrictions of professional ballet had felt so stifling and never let her go. Felicity was talking about aerial work when Sara tuned back in to her words—how she’d only just started talking classes because it seemed so different and interesting.

“Would you like me to teach you a few things?” she offered, favoring Felicity with her most charming smile. “I’m not an instructor by any stretch, but I could help you practice.”

“I would love that!” There was delight in every movement Felicity made. “The whole reason I’m here tonight is to get in a little practice so I maybe won’t fall flat on my face in my next class. Last time I got tangled really bad and ended up stuck upside-down until they finally managed to unravel what I’d done.”

Sara laughed. “I think we can at least manage to keep you from ending up like that again.” She bit her lip as she stepped up to the silks and looked at Felicity from beneath her lashes. “Not to make it weird or anything, but maybe after practice we could go get a drink?”

“That’s not weird at all!” Felicity babbled about her favorite places to get a good cocktail while they maneuvered her into a beginners pose, adorably oblivious to Sara’s meaning.

“Actually,” Sara began when they’d moved through a few simple poses and Felicity hadn’t gotten tangled, “I was hoping you’d let me buy you a drink.” Just to be safe, she went the blunt route. “Like a date.”

Felicity’s entire face flushed almost as bright a pink as her shirt. For a moment she seemed completely at a loss for words, but when her eyes met Sara’s they were filled with certainty. “It’s a date, then.”


End file.
